Question
Hello.I live in Alabama in Huntsville.I have several baskets of hanging flowering/wave petunias. Some of them are doing great but I have a couple that are not. The ones that are doing poorly look like they are dying no matter what. Some of the leaves not many are turning a little on the yellow side. I pinch off the dead blooms and keep them watered but some reason the leaves towards the top of the basket close to the soil are all brown and crunchy. Then some of the vines are wilted looking. It looks as though there are several buds about to bloom but the have not yet. I don't want to loose these plants if at all possible. What can I do I desperately need your help! Thank you for taking time to read this and reply back. I really appreciate you being here and all of the wonderful advice and helpful hints I have received from reviewing your other postings. Again thank you very much!

Answer
Jennifer,
I'll list some of the causes of the symptoms you see, and you can decide if you think any of them apply to your plants.  After the list of possible causes I'll tell you what I'd do if these were my plants.

1. Wilting means that the plants aren't getting enough water to their leaves to keep them firm - this could be because they are dry, because they are too wet (rotting roots won't be able to absorb water so the tops wilt even though the soil is wet) or because the stem has been injured (bent or cracked) so there is a "break in the flow" of water.  

2. Brown and crispy leaves have either dried up due to lack of water, or dried up because of fertilizer burn.  We try to never fertilize a thirsty plant or give too much fertilizer so that the plants won't be burned by an excess of fertilizer salts.

3. If the baskets that aren't doing as well are in a place where there isn't as much sun, they might not be drying out at the same rate at the others....so if you are watering them all at the same time, the ones in more shade will be kept too wet and this will cause rotting - leaves that yellow and wilt - sometimes you can even see that the stems near the surface of the soil are sunken in and perhaps darker in that area....this means that the soil is too constantly damp around the stem and it has rotted.

4. If the baskets that aren't doing as well are in a place where they might hit something when swinging in the wind, or maybe they were knocked at some point so that the stems cracked or bent - these damaged stems wouldn't be able to carry water to the rest of the plant.

So what to do?  See if any of the above strike you as the reason, and take steps to correct it.  If the roots or stem at soil level have rotted, you won't be able to save that plant, but you could cut the living stems off right away and root them in clean potting soil using rooting hormone. (Available at your local garden center.)  Or you could root stems from your other baskets, and pot several of them in new soil in the other baskets....in two or three weeks you can pinch those rooted stems to make them more bushy, and you might be able to have a new basket that way.

If the plants were too wet, let them dry out a bit more between waterings. You might try hanging the plants in more sun to help this.   If they were too dry, clip the stems back and water more frequently.  Fertilize after watering or use a time-release product like Osmocote at the rate recommended on the label.  

If the plants have rotted roots or stems you might not be able to bring them back.

Good luck!
all the best,
C.L.